1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a target-image search apparatus, a digital camera and methods of controlling the apparatus and camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
If the subject of photography is a person, there are instances where signal processing such as color correction and contour enhancement is executed in such a manner that the image of the face in the captured image of the person will appear in attractive fashion. In order to execute signal processing, it is necessary to detect a target image, such as the portion of the image that is the face. In a case where the target-image portion is detected from frames of the image of the subject that form a moving picture obtained by sensing the image of the subject successively at a fixed period, real-time processing is required. This makes rapid detection necessary.
In order to achieve this, the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-205070 proposes previously storing an area, from within the image of a subject, in which a specific target image is displayed, and detecting the target image from an image obtained from an area larger than this area, and the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-15979 proposes extracting a so-called skin-tone area and a dark area from a color image and detecting a face image, which is the target image, based upon information concerning the areas extracted.
However, there is still room for improvement.